WOYWW 826

 I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD...

What a gorgeous week it's been, another few days of socialising, fund raising and walking...oh and a bit of crafting too! Otherwise this would be a very short post, lol!

I might have accidentally bought some new fabric last week! It was from Pili Pala Fabrics based near Tenby, the owner Sinead happened to be in my town on business and she dropped it off for me, now that's good customer service eh?! What a nice lady she is, I had paid for postage so instead she gave me half a metre of a fabric I've bought off her previously. This daffodils fabric is one of hers:

Pretty huh? It should go well round these parts.

I bought the mosaic and the rainbow leopard was my freebie, both will come in useful.

I finished the last baby blanket so started another:

I only bought two balls of that variegated blue/grey so am eking it out with white DK, I quite like the effect!

Last Saturday was the first of the Pembrey markets as some of you may have seen on FB:

It was a successful couple of hours - I took £208 and sold the quilt that's behind my head to the lovely beekeepers who run another stall. I'm nearly a third of the way to my 2025 target of £1500, if I do that then that'll take my fundraising to over £10k. There are two more stalls in April so we'll see how they go!

The tides here have been at their highest in recent days (9.32m yesterday) so when the sea goes out, it goes far far out. Hence our beach walk looked like this:

Where's all the water gone?! Isn't it amazing to think that if you walked straight ahead and kept going for a very long way, the next land you'd see would be Virginia or North Carolina. That's why, when the tide returns, there's a lot of Atlantic to come up this estuary. It was glorious to be out blowing the cobwebs off.

Hope you're all keeping well and have had a good week - may your crafting be stress free! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 825

 SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Short and sweet today! It's been a beautiful week here in South West Wales and we've had a busy sociable few days in the lovely weather.  

I've been making a few last items for next Saturday's market:

I discovered these ready cut squares at the bottom of a box and thought they could make little bags in which to put mini eggs.

Making the pouches is quick, it's the ribbon threading that seems to take ages! I use the gas lighter to seal the ends of the ribbon so they don't fray.

Ta Daaa:

Perfect for Mother's Day or Easter!

I got everything together ready for Saturday:

I've got the packing down to a fine art now, a suitcase, two IKEA bags and two sets of shelves, not too much to lug around!

I'm on a use-it-up kick with my yarn too:

This is a yarn cake that I rewound after a failed project but it's knitting up into a pretty baby blanket for the special care baby unit. It's all garter stitch so I don't have to look at what I'm doing but can watch the telly instead!

I was sorry to hear that the Crop has been cancelled but Sarah made the right decision as numbers were low and we had time to cancel accommodation. Maybe we can do something online another time xx

Have a great week everyone! xxx

WOYWW 824

 WHO PUT THE COLOURS IN THE RAINBOW?

Another week has whizzed past and it's been full of crafting, selling, playing keyboards and enjoying the beautiful weather, how lucky am I?

The desk looks like this today:

I'm sorting out the leftover strips and scraps into colour families having seen a rainbow quilt tutorial on YouTube:

They're organised into groups of similar tones (to my eye anyway!) and I'll sew them onto 6 inch strips of white cotton and then decide what to do! I've got two strip quilts already made so will try something else.

I had to make a quick card and thought I'd use those stencils I bought recently, not with watercolours but a ready made background:

The flowers are metallic which stands out against the grey background, it was a pleasant twenty minutes of playing!

Some of you will have seen on FB that the craft fair went well on Sunday though it was quieter than anticipated:

After a couple of extra donations, the total stands at £162 so I'm happy with that! The creme egg creatures went well, the chickens and Peter Rabbit were especially popular:

The ladies doing the refreshments must all have been chicken keepers because they cleaned me out - I think that putting the egg inside makes them look all plump and happy! Some sheep and chicks went too.

So I've been making more chickens since then for the next fair on 29th March:

Having a gossip...... *grin*  I ought to make a couple more Peter Rabbits as well but they're a faff to make and I don't know if I've got enough time, we'll see,

There you go, another post of random nonsense from South West Wales - it'll be my 700th post in four weeks, how did that happen?!  Hope you have a great week xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 823

 BAAA BAAA BAAA, BAAARBAR BAAARANN

What a gorgeous week it's been weather wise, sunny and warm with a real feel of Spring in the air!  It's been another busy one with the delivery of my new piano (OMG the organ sound is fantastic, I'm shaking the spiders out of the rafters!), gardening, walking and catching up with friends. How lucky am I?

Here's the JanCave desk:

I'm cutting out the dog fabric that arrived last week but the main reason for taking this shot was to show you my RNLI certificate is now up on the wall, yay!

I enjoyed sewing this lovely bee fabric with a fresh green contrast, makes me happy....

I did the navy version with two different contrast as I was using up stash, very pleasing.

I used some last bits of the Luna fabric to make two little bags for gaming dice, the navy ribboned version is for my son Owen and the white ribbon is for the owner of a board game cafe he attends every week - the beads are from stash too.

And the reason for the daft lyric this week?

A tray full of sheepy nonsense - my friend knitted the bodies but ran out of time so I'm sewing them up and adding details. I didn't like the embroidered eyes (thought they looked creepy!) so am going for the bonkers look instead. Again, all made from stash so no expenses incurred this week lol. These will be stuffed with a creme egg and be ready for sale at my first craft fair next Sunday. Don't worry, I won't fleece the public or pull wool over their eyes, they'd be baaarking mad not to buy anything *grin*

Have a great week everyone! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 822

 CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES!

It's been a bit of a week! In a nice way, I hasten to add. So there has been a bit of crafting done but not very much, feel free to bail out now if you want to see more inspiration on others' desks, lol!

I did sort out my crochet squares:

All ready to make a throw or blanket.  My RNLI friend Denise and her 90 year old mum Betty helped with some Easter knitting for the upcoming craft fair:

And presented me with this box of creme egg filled knitty goodness, aren't they fun?! They'll go well in Laugharne, I'm sure.

I might have succumbed to some fabric.....

Pretty, aren't they? 

And that's it craftwise - after I linked up last Wednesday, I headed for my regular shift in the RNLI shop. Little did I know that people had been conniving and planning! After we'd cashed up the till, I was hoodwinked into going up to the offices above the boathouse. I was gobsmacked to see that many of the shop volunteers had gathered to see me being presented with a Special Commendation for my fundraising...I was a bit stunned!

With Trev, the station chairman.

Gordon and Rhys were there too (they'd been part of the secret as well!), it really was very special, I was very touched.

 I got this engraved glass trophy as well.

This is a panoramic pic taken from the look out room at the front of the station, you can see for miles. The crew has already been out three times this year and there's the reason why I do what I do xx

But it wasn't just me who got honoured:

Laura (holding the shield) and Richard (on right) who are the owners of the Harbour Lights Cafe where my stuff is for sale, also got an award for being supporters of the RNLI. The girls who run the Collection Boxes were also there, it was a lovely morning. Many well deserved congratulations all round!

Still with me? I'm off down another path now! I've played the piano since I was small and taught many others to play on my upright, but it was coming to the end of its days and would have cost too much to repair. G suggested we look at electronic pianos and found a place in Swansea, a drab red brick building which I have driven past countless times without noticing. Inside was a bit of a surprise:

Wall to wall grand pianos, Steinways, Bechsteins etc etc. I was amazed!  We found a perfect one for us (Yamaha Clavinova) but I could have been tempted by this:

A see through baby grand built for Michael Jackson and played by many famous folk and appeared on tv many times!  But I don't have room for it in the house so it had to stay there. Never judge a book by its cover eh?

So that's been my week, definitely a change from the normal routine but it's been a lot of fun!

WOYWW 821

 I AM THE LITTLE RED ROOSTER.....

Another chicken lyric today, or could that be subterfuge? You'll see why later...

It's been another busy week, there's been a lot more sunshine (Yay!) and a bit more warmth (Double Yay!) and spring flowers are appearing everywhere (Triple Yay!)

The strip quilt for the lad was finished:

The camo backing worked well and he was really thrilled with it, which is lovely! I had some other blocks made up so thought I might as well get another made and see if it goes at one of the craft fairs in March:

It's my aim to use up every little last piece of the fabric I buy! I bought a dove grey cotton double duvet cover from the Bargain Bin in Dunelm for £6, so got two quilt backs out of that, woohoo!

I turned my machine sideways on the cleared desk in the JanCave which spread the weight of the quilt more evenly:

I have enough blocks for one more quilt and then that's it for a while.

I saw great tutorial on YouTube by a watercolour artist called Krista Robertson, where she splodged a background and then used flower stencils to take the paint off and leave a negative image, the stencils were very cheap so:

Aren't they pretty? I think these will get a lot of use.

As well as crafting, there's been walking:

A panorama from the Gower round to the RNLI station. Funny to think that if you headed out straight out in front of you, then the next land you'd hit would be the mid to south east coast of America. No wonder the storms come barrelling across the Atlantic and we have huge tides too!

And today's lyric? A postbox topper appeared in a nearby village featuring that arch villain Feathers McGraw:

Absolute genius! Kudos to whoever crafted him, it's marvellous. So there's the Little Red Rooster....or not....

Have a wonderful week everyone, the weather is set fair apart from today, so there's more walking and crafting in store, can't be bad eh?

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WOYWW 820

 CHICK CHICK CHICK CHICK CHICKEN,

LAY A LITTLE EGG FOR ME.......

Another week has whizzed past, a cold one too here in South Wales. The wind has been very keen indeed so I'm afraid I've been doing lots of things indoors!

I've got two craft fairs lined up in March so have been knitting more of the little chickens - bok bok! They're a good size to hold a Cadbury's Creme Egg, so hopefully they'll sell well in the run up to Easter. The eggs are safe from me, bleurgh, definitely not my thing at all!

I cut and sewed more syringe driver bags from the second duvet cover:

I liked both fabrics equally so used them both for outers and inners plus a bit from stash fabric for some handles. I got fifteen bags from each duvet cover, woohoo!

I've also been commissioned to do another string quilt for a boy, tricky one really as what patterns are suitable now won't be in five years time when the teenage grots start. So I offered to do some patterned and some bright primary colours in the hope that it'll stand the test of time.

I've used that navy space fabric as the middle strip on each square to give it a sense of cohesiveness.

I was spoiled on Valentines Day:

I love the colours in this bouquet, my absolute favs! I did a quick little painted card for G:

Which he loved! He said the look on 'his' owl's face sums up our relationship, he's forever wondering what mad thing I'm going to do next, lol!!

Hope you've had a marvellous week, the days are getting lighter, Spring is creeping up slowly.....wonderful xx